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Hannibal's Second Punic War

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Hannibal Barca, most widely known as the Carthaginian general during the Punic wars, was born in 247 B.C. His childhood was spent raised with his military family in Carthage, and therefore, he was raised knowing Carthage’s hatred of the Romans. Hannibal’s father, the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca, was defeated by the Romans during the First Punic War in 247 B.C. In an effort to restore Carthage’s position, Hamilcar swore both him and his son into an eternal allegiance against Rome in Spain. Hamilcar was an extremely influential figure in the First and Second Punic Wars. Upon Hamilcar’s death in 229 B.C., Hannibal was made commander of the Carthaginian forces in Spain. At the age of 26, Hannibal was given the power to secure Carthaginian …show more content…

This effectively declared war on Spain. In 218 B.C., Hannibal’s iconic crossing of the Alps occurred. Hannibal marched through the Pyrenees towards Gaul, which is now modern day Southern France, with the objective of bringing the war to the Romans. He was alongside thousands of troops and nearly 40 war elephants. Although attacked by indigenous tribes and assaulted by inclement weather, Hannibal succeeded in reaching his destination of Italy. Over a succession of a few years, Hannibal and his troops defeated the Romans at Ticinus, Trebia and Trasimene, annihilating more than 100,000 troops. Despite this, he experienced a huge amount of loss as well. Due to this, Hannibal was not able to push into the capital of Rome, but the revered General Scipio also did not have the adequate forces to fend off Hannibal. Rome’s dispatched forces to Iberia and North Africa raided the Carthaginian villages and towns, so Hannibal, in 203 B.C., traveled back to Carthage and deserted his campaign against Rome to defend his country. In 202 B.C., Scipio managed to defeat Hannibal by garnering superior forces at the Battle of Zama; they used instruments to stampede Hannibal’s remaining elephants, which trampled the Carthaginian troops. Most of the troops left were gradually killed by the

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